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I can only guess that you are referring to an Easyflash Image.... You can "save" to it, however the changes will only be saved to the Chameleon RAM. To actually save it to SD-Card, enter the menu, enter the Filebrowser, press F4, select "save ROM image", enter a filename, and then select the cartridge slot the EF image was loaded to.
Thanks. Yes, I meant an EasyFlash image. Thanks, so it is actually possible to save then. Very nice! Thanks again
So I was trying a cartridge image of the game Pirates! I think I have asked this before with regards to another cartridge image, but is there any technical reason to why we cannot save on cartridge images? It would be really nice to have this feature
Can you post an image ?
Here is a couple of images. I have an old camera and it's not the best pictures. So they have some artifacts, lower brightness VS the real experience. I have scanline intensity set at 75% (weakest). In my first post I said 25% which was wrong. Settings are 800x600, 50Hz, Sync to VIC II is on. I am using the BenQ BL 702A LCD monitor.
As I don't have any commodore CRT monitors these days I would be interested to hear, see picture comparisons maybe, from someone who has one of these Commodore CRT monitors and TC64 with LCD to see how TC64 LCD compares to real commodore CRT monitors.
In my case I am using TC64 V2 VS in cartridge mode with a BenQ BL 702A LCD monitor. Settings are 800x600, 50Hz, VIC II sync on and scanline intensity at 25%. I wonder how this picture would compare to a real Commodore monitor?
Anyone?
It is clear this isn't going to be resolved after this long.
I don't know what it may be worth and if I do list mine for sale I am going to be clear about the issues and probably start at $50 US plus shipping.
If I had a PC CRT monitor to test on it might be acceptable but I can't justify buying a CRT just to find out it is still a poor quality image. For now the ECS V2 is just sitting in my spare A500 on the bench while my real day-to-day A500 has a real ECS Denise in it with an OSSC.
The ghosting is quite bad in workbench. But with scanlines on and gaming it's not too bad.
There is no other way, sorry. You dont have to go to the Menu all the time though... just do it once when you want to stop playing, and then save the disk.
Thanks for the answer. I think sometimes it didn't update the image or crashed as I entered the menu. Will do some more testing. I could always try some other Pirates! images aswell
So on my TC64 V2 I have a few questions with regards to updating D64 images. So I have tried the options to ask if you want to update the image and auto update image. The problem is when I'm playing Pirates! and want to save my game. So I go and save my game inside the game. Then I have to hit the black button to exit to the TC64 menu in order to be asked or auto update the D64 image, or else the save won't stick. Sometimes/quite often when I exit out to the menu and then go back to the game, the game crashes. This is quite annoying. No other way to update the image without going out to the TC64s menu? As far as I remember my SD2IEC would actually save when inside the game, with no need to do anything else.
Update.
Have been testing between my ECS V1 and ECS V2. Turns out ECS V1 has no noticeable ghosting when using a good quality VGA cable. Also has a very sharp image on my BenQ BL 702A and BL 912. Both with 62Hz and 50Hz profiles.
I have tried the same VGA connector cables that comes with the ECS V1 on my ECS V2. ECS V2 will still have bad ghosting. Of course I also tried the same VGA cable that goes to the monitor. ECS V2 seems to have ghosting no matter what profile or custom profile I do.
I even created a profile to make the ECS V2 replicate ECS V1 62Hz profile. ECS V1 62Hz profile will make my BenQ screens switch to 1024x600@62Hz. I made the ECS V2 switch to the exact same resolution and everything by making a custom profile. Still it has the bad ghosting. And in general ECS V1 seems to have a sharper image VS ECS V2.
This is definately something going on with the ECS V2. I have both original Amiga PSUs which I have recapped and more modern PSUs. Makes no difference on the ECS 2. I even tried a smoothing cap between VCC and ground in Denise socket. No difference.
I do quite a bit of soldering in general. Is there any possible solutions using smoothing caps or resistors somewhere?
So would it be possible to place the ECS V2 on top of the ECS V1? Would this work okay? Having VGA cables from each of them and use them both at the same time?
Edit due to some new testing.
Yeah I had the A500 setup still on the development desk, so before I all put it back in the box, I was like.. lets try this fix first.
Border Blank seems to work just fine now! Thanks!
The right overscan area is still missing a few more pixels compared to an original Denise. I can see it when using my BenQ BL 702A connected to RGB. With the original Denise, if I adjust the picture to the left as far as possible until the blank area starts to show itself on the right side it does indeed have more pixels VS ECS V2. However, this is no longer critical because it will not affect any games or anything as far as I've seen thus far. But if it's easy to fix it would be nice to have it replicate the exact same overscan area the real Denise have. If not, I'm happy with how it is now 
So as it stands now I am really happy with the ECS V2. Only thing I am not super happy with is the ghosting in the picture when using VGA (no ghosting using RGB). But I'm not sure anything can be done about that. I know VGA is prone to ghosting on higher frequencies. Anyway, with scanlines enabled it's not too bad.
One thing to note, allthough the BenQ BL 702A will show the 15KHz RGB picture about perfectly when pixel and phaseclocks are tuned it's just easier to look at a scandoubled picture. And especially with 13% or 25% scanline intesity. It's just easier on the eyes.
Ok discussed issue with Jens. Signal was indeed omitted on purpose to make it compatible with more Amiga models. We looked together in design of the Indi ECS v1, and there we found an alternative implementation for border blanking without requiring the sync/blank input of the chip. So I've implemented that method in the v2 firmware now. Let me know if that solves the blanking issues you observed.
wow. I had just finished replying to your last post and here you are with a possible fix for Border Blank! Will test it and report back!
Thanks
I'm aware of the blanking behavior, no easy fix I'm afraid.
The Denise chip only really knows about single lines, which is also true for the emulated one in the Indi ECS v2. The vertical blanking is controlled by the Agnus chip and there is a signal called CSync/Blank, this is not connected on the Indi ECS v2. That either is an oversight or more likely done to make the product compatible with more Amigas, so it can live on a Paula adapter for example. I might have to ask Jens about his reasoning there. That said I did implement an emulation of a part of the Agnus sync logic to get video modes like the SuperPlus mode to work. Those mode kinda creep in into what normally would be sync area (and therefore require the ECS chipset to work). I only implemented the minimum there to get those mode work. And that is the very top part of the screen. So yes the bottom part doesn't have proper blanking behavior at the moment.
So I know from a youtube video I saw the other day that trying to use a real Super Denise in an older Amiga 500 motherboard would not work. Because one of the pins on Denise was not connected on the older A500 motherboard. I think it had something to do with clock signal (probably the Csync/Blank pin you are talking about) or something. So a bodge wire would be needed. However, the Indivision ECS V2 would work just fine without that wire and at the same time run as a full Super Denise in that same motherboard (Rev.3 motherboard). So I think that is probably what you are talking about here. The missing pin, compatability and the emulation you made.
So if this is true I would guess Jens did this to get wider compatability as you said.
So maybe it would be possible to emulate the border blank fully and make it work properly. Only you would know. 100% Denise compatability would be nice of course.
Thanks
A possible fix for the reported overscan issues. Seems the flickering borders and the missing pixels in Arkanoid do have the same underlying cause.
Unpack the archive and transfer the included rbf file to your Amiga. Then use the "Flash firmware File..." under the "Firmware" menu in the IndivisionECSv2 configuration program. I've tried to minimize the impact of these changes. So I hope it doesn't create any regressions in the functionality. Let me know if it solves any of observed over-scan issues.
Wow. That was fast customer support! It seems to have fixed the issues from my testing thus far. Arkanoid shows the full horizontal overscan area, the games that had flashing borders now seems to work as they should, with no flashing border! Great work! Thanks!
Did my testing using a BenQ BL 702A connected directly to RGB and at the same time a BenQ BL912 connected to VGA and using overscan profile with full horizontal overscan (736 pixels). Tested in PAL.
I tested what Drewlio mentioned. I tried the feature called 'BorderBlank' in classic workbench. For me it shows black borders on top, left and right side. But the bottom is not blanked and still has the grey background colour. Minor issue which I'm sure is easy to fix. I believe the older firmwares do not have that specific issue if I remember correctly. I normally don't use border blank.
I have quite bad ghosting on BenQ BL702A and BL912 when using ECS V2 VGA output. It get's a little bit better when using scanline emulation. It seems like the ghosting on the ECS V2 is even worse than on the ECS V1. ECS V1 has quite mild ghosting. Have no ghosting if using RGB output instead of VGA. Tried it on A500s, A500 Plus and A600s.
Display MoreHello all,
I just received a used Indivision AGA MK2cr that gives me a black picture, or rather no picture at all.
After some 5-10min the MK2cr feels hot to the touch, is this to be expected?
Is there something I should try to make it work?
The seller seems trustworthy and says it worked for him.
The pins in the brown socket on the AGA MK2cr seems nice and straight and it attaches to LISA chip with a firm grip. I have cleaned all the pins using cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. The MK2cr has been handled using anti-static wristband and resonable force during installation. The A1200 is outputting picture through the VGA connector on my other flicker fixer/scandoubler, DCE FlickerMagic. Booting into AmigaOS 3.1.4 from SD-card adapter is ok and also using Gotek floppy adapter works fine loading adf games from USB stick.
I have used the following hardware during troubleshooting:
- Second hand Indivision AGA MK2cr with original DVI-I output connector cable
- Amiga 1200 with a Rev1D motherboard, not recapped yet but new capacitors just arrived, PSU is original Commodore 80 W model
- ACA1221EC installed, still no picture if removed
- "Nice quality" DVI-D cable, rather thick model with large ferrit cores, cable apparently ok as it gives me picture from my PC
- "No name" DVI-D cable, thinner model and also working with my PC
- Monitor Dell UltraSharp 2709Wp, 27" 1920x1200 monitor, tried both DVI-D 1 and 2 inputs
- Monitor Alienware AW3418DW, 34" 3440x1440 monitor, using HDMI input with the adapter below
- HDMI adapter for the MK2cr, made by Ayley over at AmiBay, many happy users vouching for it, I guess mine should also be ok
The card has no warranty left I guess, I don't know where it was originally bought but it has a silver sticker with QR code and warranty code.
I might consider sending in the MK2cr for checkup/service to Individual Computers if this option is available?
Any help appreciated!
Thanks, Hans
So maybe the previous owner had set a profile which does not work with your display. Do you have a screen you can connect to composite or RGB then install the AGA MK2 utility and set everything to default?
I know I have had black screen many times when messing with my AGA MK2 where I had to connect a screen to RGB to change settings on the AGA MK2.
I have scheduled looking into this issue later this week. From what I get from Timm's first check into this, it's really only happening on the far right of the overscan where no important information is displayed. On a setup with real Denise and 1084 monitor, it's even likely that that part is not seen at all, which is probably the reason why you've been the only one to report this issue. However, we'd like to be 100% compatible with the original Denise, so yes, this issue should be fixed.
I was actually thinking the same. I use LCDs so they will show more of the overscan area than CRTs. Thanks for confirming you will be working on this and that you want it to be 100% compatible with the original Denise! Hopefully you get the flashing bars in various games sorted and maybe the full overscan. I use this ECS V2 as a Super Denise replacement in an A500 Plus build I did recently. Bought the motherboard with no chips and donated chips from a 6A board I have. Had to buy the 8375 NTSC Agnus from you guys (icomp) since the PAL version is not in stock and also wanted to have the full Super ECS so that is where the ECS V2 comes in so 100% compatability with a real Super Denise would be awesome.
Sure, when we look into it, we will consider both bugs. I can't tell how difficult it will be to fix at this point in time. It could be that both issues share the same underlying problem and the different visual appearance is just the way the games configure the screen. So fixing one also fixes the other. However it could just as well be two different bugs. You can never tell with these emulation issues, it is often a complex interplay between the chip-set behavior and the game code.
Thanks for the answer. I really hope you get this fixed
Edit: Menace also has the flashing borders. Finding more and more classic games with the issue. Last firmware for the ECS V2 came out almost a year ago. This really needs to get fixed.
Edit2: Skidz (Only tried whdload version) actually had flashing borders with the original Denise aswell. The rest of the games I mentioned only had blinking borders with the ECS V2.
Even the game Super Frog has the flashing borders. So that's 3 games I've found so far with flashing borders. There are probably more. This needs to be fixed.
That is correct. We have implemented a fix for overscan in the past so very old firmwares will show more overscan issues as newer firmwares. Those fixes were for the game "Siedler" if I remember correctly. For some games it is only a few pixels that are missing and don't impact the game play. We do understand that a flashing border is undesirable and so we need to look into that. As the bug is likely located in the Denise emulation part of the product it will impact both RGB and VGA output in the exact same way.
No, as this product is still produced and sold. It is still under support. We have been testing the games you mentioned last week.
Thank you for answering. Even though some games like Arkanoid only misses a few pixels, would it be that hard to change it so we get the full overscan area in a future firmware, if you're gonna look into the flashing border issue anyway?
